#there shall be nerdery

[demonslayedher]

A Visit to the Homeland of Ufotable

This is the start of a long, collaborative post with Reichel about a little adventure we took (no, not the adventure to USJ—that post is coming eventually, really!). Spoiler alert: this is an Ufotable adventure! I’m preparing the history stuff, so @reicchel, take it from here!

[latina4rmbx]

The Butterfly Effect

This post IS about the movie. One of the stars in the movie is persona non grata, but I can't help that he was in the movie that I want to discuss and maybe dissect a bit.

The Butterfly Effect Movie (disclaimer, there are spoilers LOL). The movie came out in 2004 so I apologize if it's too soon.

AK plays a kid who passes out and when he wakes up he's somewhere else. According to IMDB (I will post the summary below) this is what the movie is about:

As a child, Evan Treborn was afflicted with blackouts where he would be in one place one minute and then another the next, remembering absolutely nothing in-between. Now all grown up and in college, he decides to read from an old journal he wrote to remember stuff that might have happened in the in-between, and suddenly finds himself back at a certain point in his life. He realizes that those blackouts he had were actually empty spaces of time he had to fill up later in life. Attempting to use this ability to undo unpleasant past events, Evan starts to find that every time he goes back and tries to fix things, he ends up making everything worse. How can he prevent more tragedies from happening and save the one girl he ever loved, Kayleigh 

Here's where it gets fun (and essentially on par to things I've posted in the past), in the beginning of the movie, there's a blurb that explains what the "Butterfly Effect" is. Now, I don't know how real it in, as in the example the blurb uses, but I do believe in it.

Butterfly Effect Definition: The idea that something small, like getting coffee, can have much larger effects, such as altering your career is called the butterfly effect. The butterfly effect rests on the notion that the world is deeply interconnected, such that one small occurrence can influence a much larger complex system.

The example used in the movie is this: The flutters of a butterfly can cause a Typhon in Japan. This is actually the example they generally use. Hence the name The BUTTERFLY Effect. The most amazing part of this example and the definition is that there are actual examples of the butterfly effect.

The Buttefly Effect is an example of Chaos Theory. Which actually feeds into MY theory.

What is Chaos Theory? i'm trying to paste the definition but this shit isn't working so I have to type it out because it's relevant. The branch of mathematics (and science) that deals with complex systems whose behavior is highly sensitive to slight changes in conditions, so that small alterations can give rise to strikingly great consequence

My question for you, dear reader, is this...Does this sound a familiar?

I don't know why I'm obsessed with alternate universes (is it coming back to you?) but I am and I know these things I write from time to time are just the rantings of a HS Graduate but they definitely make me wonder.

I'm going to go out on the limb and say because my life was NOT an easy one and I've lived in my head for a very long time that fantasy becoming reality was all I really knew. I have a fairly interesting imagination, but like me, it is lazy. Lazy in the sense that as I've evolved into me, today, I've let go a lot of that part of me that imagined greater. Here's where the fun part comes in, it's not because I can't see it happening but because I can.

I see a future that a couple of years ago wouldn't have thought possible and definitely would have never attempted to imagine my life today. I was in too much pain and I couldn't see myself. I carry my grief like a backpack, never putting it down. Never stopping to rest. Always just stuffing more and more into it because that's what I thought I was supposed to do. Carry the burden. Never really realizing that I had people, I have ALWAYS had people to help me lift the heavy load.

Not sure if I'm veering off topic here, but let a lady cook for a moment. Chaos Theory and the Butterfly Effect dictates that if you tell a child you love them and they're the most amazing humans on the planet day in and day out for the entirety of their childhoods, they will believe that they are the most amazing humans.

Unfortunately, that is not the life I've lived. It's not how I was raised nor taught to think. I always thought me putting myself in the backgroud of other's peoples happiness made me a good human when in actuality it was a trauma response.

Are you connecting the dots yet?

Back to Evan...Evan was trying to save Kayleigh from the horrors of her life because he loved her and only wanted her ever since he was like 13 years old. Evan would pass out and when he'd come to he'd be in what looks to be an alternate universe. There was what I believe the original one where she was abused. The original one lol. That's funny because as I'm trying to think back (maybe I should've watched the movie before writing this) the movie doesn't really state which life is the "original" one.

Being abused as a child does something to you. In one of Evans "returns" because he's in college, she's a heavy drug user. Is that the original life? That would make sense right? Well Evan tries to go back in time and fix it back then to make her whole in the future, but in doing so he's messing up so many other things.

I want you to think of the person you admire the most and why. It can be anybody, anywhere and any age. Then I want you to imagine they never existed in your life. What would your life have been if that person wasn't born, or that baby wasn't yours or that speaker wasn't the inspiration? It's a sad thought to say the least.

If you're a faithful reader, and I know maybe 3 of you are, then you've seen where I speak about my upbringing and how my life should've been in comparison to what it is. I've also explained it in terms of Marvel, Multiverses...What if these are just other examples of The Butterfly Effect?

I can try to nerd out and go in to detail about Marvel movies (because I do not read the comics) and shows and how they actually mimic the life and times we are living. How Spiderman is my favorite of all of the superheros, but anything Marvel puts out I'm down to watch. I actually wish I could and maybe one of the three that actually read my stuff can, because he's such a comic book fan and I'm talking all of them. DC too (insert eye roll here).

Since I'm not on that type of time, I will just continue to compare my life to fantasy.

How the choices we've made when we were children and didn't know better altered our futures for the better or the worse. How the course of someone else's life colliding with your own can change in an instant. Think of love and the act of falling in it.

I'm trying to be as forthcoming with what I write without revealing any others personal business so I'll say this...I had a conversation with an ex today. Yes, I still TALK to some ex's. I know it's weird because in spanish we have a say that goes: Adonde hay cenizas es porque hubo fuego. Which literally translates to: Where there are ashes is because there was fire. It's comparable to Where there's smoke there's fire? Most people have heard that one.

Some flames have been extinguished a very long time ago and some are smoldering, but they're wet. That means, they won't catch and they WILL burn out.

Anywho, back to this ex...We haven't had a heart to heart since right after we broke up. I mean, we have chatted now and then, but I tend to not get emotional with him because I don't see the point. Here's the problem, I come off as very standoffish and he said I "bullied" him the last time I was in NY. He wanted to see me and he didn't like my response. I PROMISE there's a point somewhere...I apologized because it wasn't my intention to "bully" him (read: hurt his feelings). I'm accountable, for the most part.

So I had to clarify how I was in love with him but alas it was not going to work because while I was in love with HIM he loved the things I did for him. Does that make sense to anyone?

You know me, I go to the comments and type things verbatim. BRB

OMG, I think my mom reads this, but this is real life and it is stated that you have to remove your ego when you write, so here we go...

Me: Maybe it started off that way but I don't think so. Whatever you may think about me or our time: I truly loved you & although I knew it was going to happen, I was heart broken to leave. Him: Were you? Me: Then you treated me like shit so I was like ahhh I'll just leave him be. So I let you be brotha. (I don't know why I called him brotha, maybe distance) ME: In response to "Were you?" Yes. You've probably been there. Broken hearted but with someone else. It was rough. Him: You know I loved what we had (see what I mean?!?!?) Me: I put my big girl panties on and handled it. Him: Memories priceless. We did crazy shit. Me: Exactly. You love what we had. Not me. When I finally realized THAT the spell was broken. Him: I've been with many but with you...Loved it Me: You will always have a place in my heart. Always. Him: I loved you too. Trust. Me: There's no reason to say anything just to make me feel better. We're good. Him: I'm texting from the heart. You match my crazy Me: There are so many different kinds of love. Someone once told me that and I didn't believe them. I started seeing it a while ago.

The fucked up part...After this exchange I thought...what if I never met him? What if I never kept the conversation going on on line? What if I never gave him my number? I had lived 40-something years not in his life, nor him in mine, up to that point and I was fine.

Here's where the split happens. When I say split I'm referring to the multiverse aspect of life. There is a universe where I never met him (even if I met him as a teenager). There is a universe where he and I never got together. There is a universe where he and I are married with children. There is a universe where we hate each other. I mean, if you believe in the multiverse aspect of life.

In the scheme of The Butterfly Effect, one little message. One little word. One little outting, changed OUR lives forever. At least in this universe. One LITTLE, what seems inconsequential, thing altered the course of our lives in a big way. Mind you, when I speak about altering anything I don't mean physical. Spiritual or Mental or Cosmical, you know?

We altered each other's chemistry. To think about it, the day before I barely knew who he was.

THAT is a crazy thing to even ponder. There once was a time that I didn't know you. Now that I do, you are my everything, or some cheesy shit like that. I'm sure I've said something along those lines before...and meant it. One kiss, leads to a roll in the hay (LOL) that leads to a date (it doesn't even have to be in the order I'm laying out in), which leads to sleep overs and holding hands and gazing into each others eyes to saying I love you to getting engaged and to getting married. All of that happens in the blink of an eye, if you can believe that.

I mean, there are several blinks, but ONE is all it takes. That one whooshing of your lashes causes a tsunami of emotions in your heart, mind, body and soul. THAT is The Butterfly Effect.

XOXO

Thanks for reading.

[cornix-the-void-crow]

Maybe I should succumb to the temptation of adding trains and tram network in Hazbin Hell and not care that adding public transport would make it less hellish.

On the similar note, I kinda want to go through with using knowledge about urban planning that I'm getting from uni and redesign Pentagram City. Maybe give it a big open market square in the centre where historically people would bring their wares to sell in temporary stalls. Or add a version of Sukiennice.

Also it would be neat to play around with Kowloon Walled City-adjacent development of Pentagram City, unregulated but kinda organised construction that was constricted from expanding outwards so it grew denser and taller.

Other thing that would be interesting is what vegetables and animals live in Hell and how are they cooked? How human dishes are adapted for local demonic ingredients.

And language! It would be so neat to play around with Hell's writing systems or how languages would shift in such mixed environment like Pride Ring

[thetruearchmagos]

Y'know...

I've recently had this burning inclination to grow through every piece of writing I've ever made, find every instance I've ever used the word 'destroyer', and change it to... something I'll have to come up with. For consistency's sake. Or something. Holy crap that would be stupid. I'm not doing it. Absolutely not---

[commanderyes]

The Commander Says Goodbye

I’m not going to lie, I’m extremely anxious as i’m writing this, out of what these news could mean to a lot of people, and my heart feels heavy enough it could drop down my ribcage any minute from now and squish all my other organs. But I’ve been dancing around this topic for a long time now, and I think i’ve finally reached a point where i can’t ignore it anymore, for my own sake.

I hereby announce Commander Yes has come to an end.

As I’ve mentioned plenty of times before, here and to many other people, when I began this comic all the way back in 2018 I was in a really bad, really low place in my life in every sense of the word, and it was a spur-of-the moment decision to cheer myself up, because Path of Fire had just released and my enjoyment of the game had reached fever pitch and I had been playing Guild Wars 2 alone since as far as launch, and none of my other friends had ever really gotten into it. I guess I just, dunno, cried out into the big maelstrom of the community, one voice amidst millions, because i wanted SOMEBODY to look at what i did and revel in the nerdery with me.

And somehow the snowball began to roll and people wanted more and more of what I could do, and I was being actively reached out to, and, well, some time after that I landed my first ever job, I discovered a lot of things about myself, and I found myself in communities that welcomed me with open arms, and many of the people in there have since become among the best friends I could’ve possibly encountered, kindred souls who i’ve shared joys and sorrows for many years and who I can’t imagine living without anymore.

And all the while I kept making the comics, and with every entry posted every week I’d keep having people stopping to comment on them, and whether they were dumb jokes or personal takes on the story, they’d all share how much what I do kept hitting them in the kokoro, and to this day whenever I play anywhere in the game I still get people who recognize me and thank me for doing what I do. It was wonderful, it IS wonderful, and seeing that response motivated me to keep going, because what did still mattered to people, out there.

But I did always say I planned to keep doing these comics until I ran out of energy for them, and I think i’ve finally reached that point.

Because ever since I actually landed that job I’m exhausted and sleep-deprived every other day, so much so that I only have time to work on the comic on saturdays and sundays, and it gets harder and harder to just sit and draw, and at that point it was just more work, and while I still enjoy and play Guild Wars 2 a lot, it no longer consumes my time and attention like I’ve used to and i’ve been having fun with more personal projects, and honestly the direction the story is taking these days does not sit right with me and it’s hard to find inspiration in that, and this might be borderline selfish but every year I find people care less and less about the comics and it really takes a hit to you motivation when hardly anybody responds after you’ve spent a whole weekend trying to squeeze a five-page comic out.

And, well, I have been doing these for six years straight, and I think that’s a good run. I’m tired, and ready to move on, at long last. Let it be someone else’s turn.

But that’s the beautiful thing about this community, isn’t it? Even if I’m hanging up the hat, there are a whole lot of fantastic artists out there, as we speak, still cranking out works of art, deserving of all the attention they can get. And think of all the artists yet to come! For every story that ends, another story is just about to begin!

The world keeps on spinning, one way or another.

I’ll be closing my patreon shortly after this, but the reddit archives and tumblr blog shall remain for people to browse whenever they feel like (or until they both go in flames, i guess, what social media isn’t about to these days)

I still don’t think I ever was that much of a big deal, but all the same, to everyone who’s ever supported me and helped me be the person I am right now, to everyone who’s been there from the beginning, to all the devs of this game that has captured us for nearly a decade now, to all my fellow players and artists out there

Thank you.

See you out there, fellow commanders. Still the stars find their way.

[rj-anderson]

I dusted and rearranged (and slightly culled) my Shelves o' Nerdery today and am quite pleased with the result. My k-pop album collection needed more space so Stray Kids ended up nudging Reylo (+ Rose and Tiny Han Solo) to the far end, but there they shall stay because even if my joy in Star Wars died in the theatre with TRoS and never recovered [1], Reylo lives forever in my heart 🦋

Anyway I currently have a complete Xdinary Heroes and xikers collection as well as all the SKZ albums I care enough to buy, which is pleasing. I'm still a little bummed that I ordered the Compact version of Deadlock by accident, and if I'd known more about the Tabloid version of Live and Fall I would have picked a different one for that album too (the hazards of doing all my buying online). But I'm still glad to have them.

-- [1] See also: Nu Who where my joy died with the Chibnall era, kind of like my joy in Classic Who died with Five's regeneration into Six and didn't return until the TV movie (which was arguably Not Good but Paul McGann was wonderful). But anyway I have two Sonic Screwdrivers (Eleven's and Twelve's) and I think they're pretty cool... ...which causes me to wonder if anyone has ever brought a Sonic Screwdriver to a kpop concert, and how funny it would be if I did. Not SKZ because I have a Proper Lightstick for them, but maybe xikers if I ever get to see them in person.

[arialerendeair]

Dreamling Fic Masterpost

Dreamling Masterpost

Decided it was high-time that I made a Masterpost of my Dreamling content because I have much of it! So here it is! If a fic is a part of a series, I'll link the series. All fics are complete unless listed in progress!

Bingo Masterpost | Ao3 Collection

An Immortal, an Endless, a Human-Turned-Dream-Eager Walk Into A Bar (and find a Missing Ray of Sunshine) |  15k

Those Who Kink Together, Stay Together | 4k

My Heart’s Protector | 5k

Make It Count | 120k

Well Matched | 31k

Dreaming of Warmth | 1.1k

Weathering A Storm | 11k

Synthetic Dreams | 7k

The Heart of an Endless | 4k

Half Your Age Plus Seven… Billion? | 10.7k

My Stranger | 6k

Iustitia | 9k

The War for The Dreaming | 32k

A Husband, A Consort, A Nightmare | 9k

Common Dating Misconceptions | 6k

A Bastion of Warmth | 7k

Ye Olde YouTube Love Story | 7k

The Not-So-Accidental Baby Acquisition | 5k

A Worthy Proposal | 7k

Hope of the Endless is Created, Taught, and Courted (Mostly In That Order) | 23k

Drifting with Dream | 12k

Dragon Wars | 39k

Summer Rain | 5k

Shifting Gears | 5k

The Barghest Nightmare | 19k

Hopefully Verse

Hopes & Dreams | 35k

Hoping Dinner Goes Well | 9.5

A Symbol of Hope | 3k

Hope Holds the Gates | 5.5k

Shattered Hopes and Rebuilt Dreams | 6k

Hope Destroys to Build Again | 4k

A New and Hopeful Future | 5k

The Art of Weapon-Related Seduction (As Observed by Hob Gadling & Dream of the Endless) Verse

The Art of Seduction Via Longbow | 12k

The Continuing Art of Seduction Via Weapons Demonstrations (And Leather Pants) | 11.5k

The Art of Nerdery (and Seduction) Via Lightsabers | 4k

Checkmate Verse

Discover Check, and Incidentally Mate | 6k

The Grandmaster Title (And Reward) | 13k

Dreamling Week 2023

A-Courting to You | 1.1k

Dragon Bonded | 5k

Anything | 3k

Pretending! Unless... | 4k

Jealousy Does Not Become Him | 4k

Or | 2.5k

All in a Day's Kidnapping | 6k

Standalone Dreamling Fics

Alexander is Endlessly Surprising | 30k

Vengeance Burns | 4k

The King Consort Goes to War | 8k

Nightmaric Catharsis | 15k

The Price | 22k

Begin, Muse, when the two now break and clash, Dream of the Endless and Lucifer Morningstar | 9k

The Decline in the Art of Kidnapping | 4k

Necessary Friction | 5k

Torment | 8k

Daydream in Love | 5k

In the Rain | 2k

Broken Pots Still Hold Water | 9k

A Dream of Rescue | 51k

Five Times the Dreaming Needed Dream - and One Time They Needed Each Other | 8k

Rescuing Hope of the Endless | 9k

On Fierce and Wild Wings | 33k

Hob Gadling, King Consort (And Friends) | 12.3k

Into the Unknown, Together | 4k

Learning to Say Goodbye | 1k

Struggle | 1.1k

The Storyteller | 2k

Lustful Daydreams | 3k

Songs and Sagas of a Fate Determined | 4k

Becoming Hope of the Endless | 6k | IN PROGRESS

While You Were Sleeping | 4k

Braided Longing | 13k

A Dream Model | 30k

A Dream of Dragons | 32k

Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day? (AKA The Sonnet-Off) | 7.5k

Dreams Make Living Worthwhile | 63k

Broken Glass | 12k

Dethroned | 24k

A Family Stands Tall | 10k

A Blundered Beginning | 12k

What's a Bit of Death Between Friends | 9k

Call of the Wild | 28k

Rewrite the Stars | 60k

Old Town Road (AKA The "Hob is a Horse Girl" Fic) | 12k | IN PROGRESS

Well, That's Curious | 39k

Colour Forecasting (Co-authored with @blueberrymffn) 289k out of 625k posted)

Will be updated as I post more fic!

[vidavalor]

Hello to the Gorgeous GO Word Lady!

I love your posts and I was wondering if you think there's a word thing happening with Alpha Centauri? I know it's the stars and Crowley was meaning going to the actual stars but there a lot of stars? Do you think there's a wordy reason why Crowley calls running off going to Alpha Centauri?

Thanks!

Hi there. 💕 Gorgeous, eh? You flirt, you... Chocolate cake? *slices* There is significance to the actual star system that many of others have written about but you asked me for the word nerdery so the word nerdery you shall receive... As always, if anyone sees additional things, please shout out.

Alpha Centauri = All for centaur, I.

A centaur is a mythical being from Greek mythology that is half-man, half-horse.

See also: 1601's horse innuendo; that the wine Crowley is drinking at Marguerite's in S2 is called a male horse in French; Aziraphale's hilarious thinking of/humming of "The William Tell Overture" (popularly known as the theme song to 'The Lone Ranger') while possessing Madame Tracy in light of all of the possession-is-akin-to-sex dialogue in different scenes; to some extent, the unicorns, etc...

Horseback-riding-is-sex jokes live in the happy place at the intersection of animal comparison and transportation-related innuendo.

Also important to note that Alpha Centauri is also part of the Centaurus star system, lest my post mislead you into thinking that I am implying there only be but one centaur in this relationship as that is not at all my intent lol. The Latin centaurus is actually the root word of centaur, so...

Alpha, as we all likely know, means beginning and first/first in a sequence. Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet, where it was derived from the Phoenician letter aleph, which is the first letter of the Semitic abjads. Speaking of beginnings of things and firsts in a sequence? Aleph is the West Semitic word for ox.

Within alpha lives pha, which can be used with relation to making drinks in Vietnamese. (So, to favored euphemisms of coffee & alcohol.) It also, through French influence on the language, adopted a meaning of a phase/a stage in a process or (and I really love that the Vietnamese have a word that means this specifically): a brief, but astonishing, event.

Speaking of our riding theme, in several other languages, pha is either a word for thigh (Rade, Jarai) or means to give (Phuthi, Lala). In Greek, it is a root meaning of words related to the ideas of speaking and showing. In keeping with their sea theme, pha is the root of Greek pharos, which means a lighthouse.

In Sanskrit, pha can apparently be translated, depending on use/context, to mean any of the following rather Ineffable Husbands-y things: obvious/evident; a very windy rainstorm; an increase or a swelling; bubbling/boiling; heat; idle chat; and, as if that weren't enough, of, or pertaining to, fruit.

[deathsbestgirl]

quagmire part two

@waiting-for-the-day here be nonsense

she agrees with him and she's funny.

scully is crazy. she thinks there's some non-human creature out their eating people and she just takes her little dog for a walk. she's fine, she's got her gun.

and queequeg is even worse!! these two and their no fear. this tiny little pup who should be afraid of the world goes running into the woods for a second time and this time gets EATEN. poor scully lol

but now we're getting to the best scenes, my favorites.

like when scully comes back, no queequeg in tow, mulder is still fixated as she's sitting in shock.

this man says "i'm sorry about queequeg" then rambles on about the pictures as if scully didn't just watch her dog eaten lmao and she's trying to listen to him, they still have a case & a pile of dead bodies they don't want growing but she comprehended nothing.

"i kind of faded out"

"can you drive a boat?"

(he really hated queequeg lmao)

AND HERE WE GO. the boat.

okay i love this scene soooo much. the part on the boat is so underrated.

that little line about expectation & hope, seek and ye shall find. i think mikaela already said it best:

(read the whole post: https://www.tumblr.com/waiting-for-the-day/722583454298079232/in-quagmire-after-the-boat-crashes-when-theyre)

earlier, scully played along with him talking about other sea monsters. here she's showing off some sailing skills *and* telling him a nice little anecdote about "here be monsters" — right up his ally as he's pouring over the map trying to tell her where to go.

(literally these little moments of sharing her childhood & nerdery, being his (best) friend, giving him those moments he didn't get to have as a kid, using it to bond with him, to show how she listens & cares and she's just like him really)

the jokes they make are so nerdy and it's a core part of their relationship. they both just store information in their brains in the hope they'll be able to whip it out to impress the other, or make them laugh.

~too bad we're not fishing~ ~we are fishing~

~here be monsters~ ~i have a map of nyc just like that~

and one of my favorite things about scully: when she doesn't know something, mulder must have the answers! ~what is that? what is that mulder?~ ~here be monsters, scully~ (and he does know this time, he just doesn't know what kind of monster they're actually going to find)

making jokes when their boat is about to sink with them on it. i love them. so unserious.

scully yelling mayday and mulder stopping her like honey we have to get out of here now please put on your life jacket — NO FEAR which is extra funny because she's about to give a speech about ~respect nature because it has no respect for you~

(oh the quips. "there goes our $500 deposit" and ~i say we swim~ ~swim? ...in which direction?!~)

cotr really has so much. it becomes a little breaking point for scully. at the beginning she was annoyed with mulder and she didn't understand why he was even interested in the case, and then when she sees the big blue sign she's exasperated. it also isn't a typical case he goes for. so yes, he's interested in big blue, not entirely out of the realm of possibility. but she can't figure out why, because what does this really have to do with his sister? what everything usually goes back to for him. she's been mulling this over since the episode started.

and now!! they're stuck on a rock in the middle of the lake and they have no idea if anyone heard their call & is coming. and he's still all ~that's big blue!~

scully: mulder, sometimes i just can't figure them out.

like she really really wants to understand him. she's always trying to understand him. big blue has her stumped.

and then they're interrupted by the DUCK and the humor is back

she's like ~how dare you joke about cannabalism it's real to me~

and ugh my favorite thing. mulder was too focused earlier to give space for scully losing queequeg. but he gets another opening here,. he has no idea what to do (and he really hated that dog). however there's one thing he can do and it's let her talk.

he asks why the name queequeg and she talks about moby dick and her dad and starbuck and it's so sweet & relatable (i have one cat named newspaper because my dad was always reading the paper — we had piles of them & i still have one he kept when obama became president — and another cat named saturn because he had a saturn & he loved that car & ya know, because space lol) and it's another way they open up to each other & bond & they're just best friends. this is a best friends conversation for sure. (and maybe dipping into how deep their relationship goes)

and then !!! scully has a revelation.

[scully finishes the line with him and they are both trying to impress each other here idc what anyone says. scully has that book memorized and mulder probably read it once, maybe twice and has been *waiting* to share this little tidbit with her for years!!!]

anyway. this whole conversation has been simmering. scully has been confused & frustrated, but she believes in mulder & she cares about him & she's going to follow him until they find the truth he's seeking. she's there for the journey, with all its circle & endless lines & aberrations. they've been making jokes & quips, giving each other small moments of levity to ease the tension surrounding them. all of it so they can get to the crux of it and that's what's happening on this rock.

she compares him to ahab "everything takes on a warped significance to fit your megalomaniacal cosmology" and "scully are you coming onto me?" (the way she ignores his ~flirting 90% of the time kills me, she's ~so funny) and "trying to do so will only leave you dead along with everyone else you bring with you" and god he's so serious & unserious, he can't have this conversation (which i think is something he really fears after scully's abduction, before it was just him, only he could be hurt or killed. that's not how it is now) without humor, so he talks about wanting a peg leg. "i'm not being flippant" and "and that's not flippant?"

(and nobody believes he wouldn't be hobbling around on a peg leg still doing exactly what he's doing now. the delusion that he could be content just living.)

and then farraday comes to save (ruin) the day "hope i'm not interrupting anything" how much did this man hear 🤣

they tell him about the boat sinking and when he asks, scully claims "it was my fault" instead of trying to explain to this non-believer that it was possibly big blue. god i love her.

and then the sheriff finds them, tells them about search. mulder tells him they need to search striker's cove but he doesn't listen til scully in her very judicious way says "Sheriff, Agent Mulder and I would appreciate it if you could spare two or three of your men to assist us here." and he agrees. scully's face:

and then farraday is attacked and he didn't see it (surprise surprise) and mulder is the first person to see what's attacking people and he's so sad it's an alligator which he kills (like he's soooo cute. he wants it to be big blue so bad but if it was he would have had to kill it and then he would have cried!!!)

and another underrated scene:

scully can see he's disappointed. he didn't find the big white whale he wanted, but he solved the case and saved more people from dying/attacks. she thinks he should be proud of the work he did.

scully finally gets it now. mulder wants something tangible too. he wants to keep hoping, he wants to believe. and he found hope in big blue's existence and he just wanted to experience something being real, with evidence & proof. (go read mikaela's post!! she says it perfectly)

and scully will always do everything to keep his hope & belief alive, to protect it. because it's precious. it's one of the most beautiful & special things about him. and it's this wonderful, quiet moment between two best friends who don't always get each other but they always try. they always listen. they stay by each other's side. for better or worse. the new ahab & starbuck.

(the way mulder has a natural skepticism he fights with thome & the desire to believe. i think he's afraid not to. the way scully has an innate ability to believe but it frightens her and so she fights it with skepticism)

[thegeminisage]

sigh. tng update time. tuesday we did "sarek" and last night i sadly watched "menage a troi" on my own.

sarek: the fact that they mentioned his "son's wedding" once near the beginning and never clarified distracted me for the entire episode until i could google it. and google gave me no answers except to say that he married saavik in some semi-canonical novel. i hate that because saavik was his student (i guess aos had him right after all...) and also because of whatever horrible and weird thing they had going on in search for spock. WHICH BY THE WAY BROKE PREVIOUSLY ESTABLISHED CANON don't get me started

anyway, aside from that, this episode fucking ruled

i love the concept of vulcan dementia just being vulcan emotionalism. i wonder if it's genetic. i wonder if spock would've gotten it had he lived longer. i kind of wish spock had been the one following sarek around containing his emotions even though i wouldn't wish that fate on him cuz then i would've gotten to see him :(

less thrilled about the new wife. they could have had someone else play amanda if her real actress wasn't available (and she wasn't dead, i checked). if people live for like 150 years in the future there simply wasn't long enough for her to die and for sarek to have gotten remarried, especially if vulcans bond for life (which i guess was implied in some interpretations of amok time but not canonized).

actually, if sarek had once been bonded to someone as spock was to t'pring, how did HE wind up with a human wife...did he get remarried so quickly because of pon farr or does that wind down as vulcans get older...so many questions which will never be answered

anyway, i loved the sudden bursts of anger, it was so fun. uh except for beverly hitting her kid but it wasnt Her so we can move past it. especially thrilled with riker and picard almost getting into it

SAREK CRYING? ok king. i wish we had gotten to see spock cry and not in that deleted tmp scene

i loved picard's nerdery of him also. that makes the mind meld very fun. the rituals are literally intricate. also, "we shall always have the best parts of each other inside of us" i HOPE THATS TRUE FOR SPOCK AND KIRK AND BONES. i read an excerpt from a novel. well. i don't want to talk about it

anyway, picard calling out to spock and amanda...maybe i did well up a little at the mention of spock's name. who can say!!!!!

menage a troi: SSSSSSSSSSSIGH

ok, so i grabbed this one by myself because the summary looked bad and we're trying to finish s3 before chr*stmas fucks up all our social plans. no matter how bad the summary was, the actual episode was WORSE

i have three good things to say about this episode actually. the first was that i like that deanna yelled at her mom again, although this time i know better than to expect it to stick. the second was that i LOOOOVED deanna and riker's little date outfits. extremely charming. and finally i loved when lwaxana handed riker that horrible looking vegetable and he ate it with only mild reluctance. king is literally down to clown.

the rest of this ep was garbage. i know we didn't actually see any sex happen but i feel like they implied pretty heavily that the ferengi fucked her, possibly even multiple times. and like it's funny! ha ha ha look at the crazy situations this eccentric lady gets into! ha ha ha look at her and deanna having to run around naked!

somehow, this was the worst lwaxana episode yet. idk why i actually expected them to do a little better in s3. like, if i was gene roddenberry and they did this to my WIFE on MY SHOW. but you can put even odds on it being his idea or him getting off to it. his horrible little fetish fuel.

cherry on top was lwaxana's self-sacrifice at the end where she stays behind to let deanna escape sex slavery or whatever. which one felt like a classic narcissist parent thing and two wasn't even real - it was an excuse for picard to do badly-acted poetry on the bridge to pretend to be her jealous lover to get them to let her go. and then after all that she goes right back to sexually harassing HIM. because it's funny! ha ha ha!

anyway, it's a shame they had wes's little arc as the b plot of this episode because it was fine and feels important continuity wise, and yet every list on earth will rightfully suggest this episode get skipped because it fucking sucks.

tonight, the last two episodes of season 3 - "transfigurations" and "best of both worlds part i." i already know picard gets BORGED in the finale because i've known that since i was a baby and i am WAITING!!! they fucjing blue balled me in the first borg ep and i am MORE than ready for some brainwashed cyborg action. palette cleanser after lwaxana troi episodes.

[vidavalor]

Hi @crowlixcx I brought word nerdery to help support the theory in your tags about them getting body swap amorous the night before:

Happened: Contains hap and the obvious penis euphemism of pen (which is also obviously an enclosure for animals.) Hap is Scottish slang for being wrapped up in blankets.

Crowley in 1941: "Shall we retire the act?" One definition of 'retire' is to leave the common space to go to bed for the evening while 'the act' is euphemistic, especially in Christian environments, for sex. Crowley was asking if Aziraphale wanted to take the celebration upstairs and Aziraphale's response was a mischievous use of bed-related slang that said he was definitely interested: "Perhaps."

Bonus: "Rescuing me makes him so happy."

[demonslayedher]

I'm asking this through a proper ask this time, so that other people can have benefit of reading your thoughts and answer on it.

So.

How come the Kanji for "rank" is 弦? As far as I understand, that particular Kanji is used to describe a string, like a bowstring, in particular drawing a bowstring. Wouldn't it be more accurate to use Kanjis like: 格, 級, or 位?

I don't actually have that many thoughts, since this isn't that closely tied into KnY and I'm not a language teacher, but for some basic reference, the Corp uses the phrase "階級" (kaikyuu) for the term "rank," and I have more reference about that system and it's terminology here. "Kaikyuu" implies a stepping-stone sort of system of advancement, as opposed to words for rank which might imply something more like social class or wider hierarchy or the quality of a good or the level of nerd test one is trying to pass. "弦" (gen) is used only for the Twelve Moon Demons, because this is in reference to stages of the moon. You're correct that this character describes something like a bowstring, because these phases of the moon are compared to a drawn bow, facing either up (Upper Moons, like when the moon is waxing and has reached half full), or facing down (Lower Moons, when the moon is waning and reached half again). I had left the former explanation at roughly that, but since you've done a formal Ask, I've taken a look back at the Moon Breath forms to see if I can offer any additional insights off the top of my head... and I promptly said "nope!" and closed the book, hahaha! The Breath names can be really deep, but also really difficult to know where to start when researching them (sometimes they jump out at me, like how lightning is thought to give life to rice, hence "Rice Spirit," or references to specific phenomenon like "Unknown Flame"). I was hoping some of the Moon Breath forms would be more obvious moon phase or moon season references, since those can get pretty poetic. Some of them feel slightly familiar but I'm not ready to follow this rabbit down down this hole yet. ^^;;;;;

[mywingsareonwheels]

Oh no, a bodyswap!

Fred Thursday and Douglas Richardson have suddenly swapped places. Thankfully Douglas wasn’t flying GERTI at the time, and Fred wasn’t in the middle of a chase or anything, nor in the middle of a pint.

Also fortunate is the fact that there’s been a fair amount of this sort of thing around lately, so MJN Air, the Thursday family, and the CID take it all pretty calmly. The important thing now is to keep what’s happened under wraps, so the two men have to temporarily fit into each other’s lives for a while...

[cut for length, extreme nerdery, and spoilers for a reveal in the final episode of “Cabin Pressure”, though it’s set rather earlier...]

Martin spits out a few things about regulations and how dangerous it is to have a co-pilot who CANNOT ACTUALLY FLY A PLANE, Carolyn, really this isn’t acceptable, can’t we have Herc for a bit? But actually he and Fred get on rather well. Fred is, shall we say, rather used to awkward young men with passionate interests in what they do and no self-preservation to speak of. He’s not too bad at picking up word games either. He also is utterly unfazed by Carolyn, and very gentle and lovely with Arthur.

He doesn’t like Herc much, mind.

Douglas is delighted to be pretending to be a police detective in the late 60s for a while, and says so at great length. They don’t send him out on cases, obviously, and Bright and Jakes between them take charge of everything, but he’s intelligent and astute and no harm in using what resources they have so he chips in from time to time. Bright frankly finds him rather confounding. Morse misses Thursday desperately, and he instinctively distrusts Douglas’s easy charisma, but he can’t deny it’s great to have someone to chat about opera and crosswords and etymology and books with at work for a while. And Morse’s tenor blends rather well with Douglas’s baritone, so they even duet a little when they think no one’s listening.

“Oh Christ,” says Jakes to Strange and Trewlove (because they all very much were), “now there’s two of them”. No one’s forcing him to stay listening and actually rather enjoying it, mind...

Douglas is happily ensconced in what was Joan’s room, but his attempts to charm Win fall extremely flat. His cooking, however, is another matter.

(Douglas would absolutely deny that part of him, seeing Win and Sam, and Joan when she’s over, and the solid loyalty that all of the station have for Chief Inspector Thursday, is most profoundly, gut-wrenchingly jealous of this working-class doppleganger of his.)

Martin gives Fred a flying lesson on a quiet day, and is both utterly delighted (he can’t wait to tell Sam!), and suddenly struck with how much he misses his home. And Morse. He ought to tell Morse more often how much he values him. As he can’t right now, he tells Martin how proud he deserves to be of himself. How much he hopes that his Sam turns out to have even half of Martin’s grit and determination. Martin is absolutely not getting misty-eyed, shut up.

“Fred is brilliant, isn’t he, Mum!” “Yes, Arthur,” replies Carolyn, “for once I think that statement you make about every human you meet seems to actually have truth in it.” Carolyn has not started carrying a tiny miniscule flicker of a torch for their guest. She doesn’t. Herc can stop fussing, honestly.  “I do miss Douglas though,” Arthur confesses. “And I bet Fred’s family and friends are missing him lots.” There are three things that Douglas does for his new friends in Oxfordshire before he finally manages to get back. The first is that he teaches Morse, Max, and a number of Morse’s colleagues how to make several delightful non-alcoholic cocktails, and has a quiet and (for him) very gentle word with Morse about the drink and what it can do, and how much he would like his new young friend to profit by his own sad example.

The results of the second were many and various, but if Bright never hears the phrase “the lemon is in play!” go past his office again it will be far too soon.

Third? Well, let’s just say that there are a few corrupt, wealthy powers-that-be in Oxfordshire who won’t be messing with Morse or Jakes or anyone else any time soon. It’s possible that Douglas didn’t keep precisely within the law, but he’s not actually a detective inspector, and it’s not like he used any violence. Some things are just so much more effective, after all... Fred only did one thing before he got back, unlesss you count the pep talks to each of Martin and Arthur, a chivalrous tip of the hat to Carolyn, and leaving an appreciative note for Douglas on the latter’s kitchen tablet (along with hearty apologies for the burned bit at the bottom of the Le Creuset dish). But Gordon would insist on descending yet again to make life difficult for Carolyn and Arthur. Douglas doubtless would have handled things differently, with more aplomb and cunning and the like. But Fred’s still a detective, even if he’s not a genius like Morse, and it wasn’t that hard to find that gold wiring in the end really. Nor to make damn sure that Gordon will not be coming back... They catch a glimpse of each other, crossing somewhere in the ether as they return home. A polite nod (Fred) and a wink (Douglas). And a few words exchanged, one posh and drawling, the other a soft cockney. “You look after that red-headed boy of yours. He needs a few good meals and someone to tell him he’s proud of him. He looks up to you more than he’d ever admit.” They stare at each other. “Well,” says Fred, “we’d better both do that then.”

[inheritorofmemories-archive]

@themoonwheniamlost​, please keep in mind you encouraged this massive display of nerdery from someone who might someday end up writing stuff and thus loves to overthink anything related to writing.

Your post here is the perfect opening for me to say: the pacing of this movie in incredible and I would love to see the script. More under cut because once again I do not know how to keep things short.

I heard reviews saying the movie is too slow and I'm sorry but they die 12 minutes in. What else do you need??

And before that, and the thing from your post that prompted this: the very thing you get, the opening even, is the very dramatic and curiosity inducing line from Andy “I’ve been here before. Over and over. And I'm so tired.” How many time did this woman lie in a pool of her own blood? Wait, is she dead? I want to know, I shall keep watching to find out! And that’s followed by the found family opening and giving you clear indications of every characters. Booker and Andy share a thing in common (it’s called depression kids) ie: the book, the alcohol in the tea; Joe and Nicky are JoeandNicky and also their hugs tell a lot about themselves -open and loud love or reserved and quiet love- Joe’s “Admit it Boss (another good element, she’s the boss and they don’t question it. Sexism who?), you’ve missed this” and Nicky’s “We can do some good” being fundamental piece of their characters, then cool team work showing all their skills and how well they work together, and then bam! Immortality and stakes of the movie in two minutes : can't die, people know they can't die, oh no gotta clear that up. Also Tired Andy has given up.

And then you have Nile, lots of elements about her in a short time : she's kind with the children when she has no obligation to, she’s a competent marine and a good person “Keep it respectful”. She’s also leading her team, and she’s good at her job, make the women leave the place before attacking, “we need him alive!” and oh no she's dead! But she's not, oh shit another immortal while they're being tracked? Gotta find her and Copley, let's split up. More characterisation of the team with how they deal with the dreams.

Moment focused on Nile with the Frank Ocean scene, how she’s feeling rejected and overwhelmed but music and art is a safe space for her that she finds comfort into. Then Andy finds her and the plane fight : introduce dynamics and personality. Tired Andy is woken up from her catatonic state by Nile (look how she smiles when Nile deck her), Nile is so smart and quick on her feet (the belt around Andy’s wrist) and also she's a fighter she doesn't give up easily. But she's still scared of what’s happening to her, and Andy is gonna help her.

Then moment of exposition and bounding that's not too dragged out and just enough info dumping while still being enjoyable to watch with the jokes (more like misery loves company/what he said, we killed each other/Many times) and the emotions (the entire Quynh scene) and then we focus some more on Nile (and her relationship with Andy); how scared she is, how she’s dealing with it all. And in a fluid transition (being a big explosion) another fight scene! And even in the action, we still get Andy and Booker and feelings, fear and love and care for another.

But this fight has more stake, and it serves to show the spectator the violence of Andy and how she deals with it (you need to feel it). Nile has doubt and fear over Andy’s actions, understandable when you see the state of the church when she leaves. Then the van scene for Joe and Nicky and to feed us little gays who clearly need the positive representation; then Andy finds she's mortal, then Booker's back story for Nile, then the scene with Celeste and then Nile and Andy talking on the car : developing the emotions and characters. On the side, Joe and Nicky with Merrick : bit of plot and characterization of the antagonists (Merrick is a sadistic asshole, the doctor is the same and Copley starts to have doubts) but also more food for us (oh, that time in Malta).

Then, betrayal!! Smart Nile figures it out on her own, but before Andy does so we know what’s going on when Andy steps into the room and we can watch Booker’s reactions. Oh no, Andy is gonna die, but Nile come back to save the day. Also, we learn their purpose! After the emotional scenes and development we get the last fight scene, but it's for the plot not just action for the sake of kicking ass (which they can do very well but that’s not the focus, it’s the ground for the inclusion of Nile in the team and the development of their relationships). We get Nile accepting her immortality (going down fighting, what a fitting song), Booker facing them, Andy standing up again despite how tired she is (she trust Nile’s word! “I’ve seen it, I know all the good you’ve done” and she gets up!) and the team getting out. Also, "I go first, next time it's you" and "he speaks Russian?" for the evolution of Nile and Andy's relationship, nicely done.

And now it's the end, it’s not as quickly paced, now we can settle down and feel again, bad guy's dead and they're safe. They heal and deal with the last problem: Booker. More Nile development, she's in the team now and she'll deal with her family. More Andy development, she’s ready to fight again! Moral of the story: human survive by helping each other and being kind and good. Survival through others, and it works! The movie tells us so!

The last scene is very obvious but still, cliffhanger needed : Oh No. Quynh's back and we have no idea what she plans to do but she's planning alright. See you in the next movie, bet you’ll want to see what’s gonna happen next.

.

I would love to see the script because that movie deals really well with the plot and the progression of the stakes and the character's arc. It's all very fluid and at no moment it felt wrong or forced. Of course you feel the info dump at the church but it's done really gracefully compared to other movie where you get a lecture instead of a conversation between characters that feels natural and real, human.

All the character arcs are clear: Nile accepts her immortality and finds her place in the team, Andy finds hope again and a will to fight.

[rentfreecat]

Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts Fanfic Recs

so yeah I figured I should get around to making a list of some of my faves to promote them, I’ve got a big enough collection of bookmarks now. in no particular order. not all of them are necessarily complete or alive

Final Fantasy VII

The Gold Saucer’s Golden Arches by belderiver

Before he doomed the world to ash and ruin, Sephiroth wanted a burger.

note: Sephiroth + sudden hunger pang = mcgold

Meetings by Yinza

Aeris reflects on her few encounters with Sephiroth over the years since her escape from the lab.

note: Aerith having known Sephiroth before is just one of my favorite headcanons

lather, rinse, repeat by annperkinsface

She knows she shouldn't confuse this act of kindness for anything else, but it's hard, when Aerith is draping a towel over her shoulders, when Aerith is warm at her back, humming as she works a thick lather across her hands.

note: adorable Aerti. Aerith being a weirdo. Tifa blushing and being kinda horny. perfect. in case you couldn’t tell I ship it.

In Circles by Larissa

Tifa hates Midgar, and yet she stays, and she stays, and she stays.

Character study/pre-game gap-filler. Written for the Tifa Zine.

note: beautiful mood piece

the nodding golden tansy by Kieron_ODuibhir

“You think this troubles me?”

“Yes,” said Cloud, without looking up from his tea.

note: one of my fave takes on Seph and Cloud’s relationship. wonderfully quiet and melancholy.

not one before another by Kieron_ODuibhir

1) Sephiroth almost corrected the first person who called Aerith his sister, a woman they’d met before they were even out of Midgar’s slums complimenting him on taking such good care of her, while their mother shopped.

2) The other half of Project S took after their father.

3) Blue eyes contemplated him narrowly for several seconds, and then Genesis’ smirk came back, lying on his face more easily, somehow. “So brothers-in-arms to the skirmish shall we hence?”

4) It felt wrong to be relying on anybody but Mother, but Mother…only cared about Sephiroth, and it wasn’t fair. Loz sniffled. “Will she take care of Yazoo, too?”

5) “I’m glad he’ll have a big brother,” she said, as Sephiroth crossed the room. “Little ones always need someone looking out for them.”

Sephiroth nodded, and bent forward, and peered at the squashed little pink thing until it stirred, objecting probably to cool air on its face. “What’s his name?”

“Cloud."

(Five times in five worlds where Sephiroth was somebody's brother, and one where he wasn't anymore.)

note: exactly what it sounds like. personal fave is 4.

Angels Still Have Faces by Kieron_ODuibhir

On the fourth day, Sephiroth looked out a window and spotted his two friends together on one of the outdoor training fields, once again exchanging harsh words, only for Angeal to wheel around and storm off at the end.

note: fics where someone other than the main character time-travels are amazing and this is that and also outsider pov mother bear Sephiroth who doesn’t know what pizza is

Final Fantasy IX

puppet play by zalzaires

starting a drabble collection for ffix. i mostly just write about kuja so hence the name.

note: my personal fave is "curtains, bookends, stars of the show” because Kuja is such so... Kuja in there

Final Fantasy XV

ffucc the wedding by Givethemtriumphnow

Gift for Victortor, inspired by their fabulous ffucc Universe.

Noctis and Luna are the same person, one soul split into two bodies.

In a world where everyone lives and nothing hurts, the wedding is still a symbol of the peace, and the show must go on. Noct and Luna just can’t wait for what comes afterwards: the Big Reveal.

note: I just really like the one person two body trope okay? pretty entertaining read!

Poor Wayfaring Stranger by lithos_saeculum

Out on a mission, Cor Leonis finds a teenager, lost and sick and partway to becoming an MT. Against the advice of all and sundry, he brings him back to Insomnia. There's not a lot of love lost for MTs in the Citadel, but some of its inhabitants may still be young enough to put aside their prejudices.

note: also on my list of likes is MT Prompto trope, and honestly fuck canon that’s just there for inspiration. TW for implied pedophilia and stranger danger in one of the later chapters.

Will You Be There, Standing at the End of the War by Adel Mortescryche (Mortescryche)

When they're attacked by the Imperial Forces at Tenebrae, Regis wasn't prepared to be rescued alongside Noctis, Lunafreya and Ravus by the Commanding General of the enemy forces. Not after the man already cut Sylva down before them.

He was even less prepared for the face lying in wait behind the mask.

He dropped down to one knee, and rather pointedly cupped the left side of Drautos’ head, delicate, making no move to actually hide the fury raging through him.

“Talk, Titus.” Regis whispered. “Before I take this airship down from the sky.”

note: Drautos time-travels and is an absolute bastard. I like seeing his and Regis’s exchanges!

For Want of a Flan by magicgenetek

For want of some patience, Ifrit never freed Ardyn from Angelgard to rebel against the Astrals.

For want of Ardyn, Nifleheim never invented MT Troopers.

For want of MT Troopers, Lunafreya and Ravus were able to escape with Regis, and Nifleheim never cornered Lucis in their war.

For want of a kidnapping, Luna, Noctis and Prompto were able to work together to get ready for the prophecy, and Ravus is ready to suplex an Astral to make sure someone survives the prophecy.

For want of separation, the four of them go to Angelgard to figure out what secrets lay there, and accidentally adopt Ardyn into their plans to save the world.

For want of 2000 years’ prep time, Ardyn’s going to have to get up to speed on the modern world fast if he wants revenge or to fulfill his half of the prophecy.

note: has a good deal of worldbuilding and linguistics nerdery. I like that. I also like the recovery element of Ardyn’s arc.

A Little More Time by Asidian

The sun is brilliant overhead – set in a blue sky dotted with clouds that float like wisps of spun sugar through the high arc of the heavens.

It's more than lovely. It's entrancing, and Noctis takes one long, final look before he turns his gaze back earthward. His vision dances with sunspots for a moment, afterimages from the blinding light – but when it clears, Noctis sees a small black dog there, patient and watchful as always.

Umbra has been waiting.

"Alright," Noctis says. "We're ready to go back."

note: short, punchy, and absolutely chilling

Eschaton by nirejseki

Sure, it's the end of the world, but that just means someone's got to fix it.

And then the world found its somebodies.

(aka, with Noctis gone into the Crystal and no one sure when he'll be back, Ignis, Gladio, and Prompto end up saving the world one piece at a time)

note: I like worldbuilding and MTs alright? and schoolteacher Gladio will never not be funny/great

Astra Inclinant by thekindmagic

“Look,” Aranea laughs, shaking her head. “I’m not trying to shit on your destiny. But the way I see it? A lot of the time, there’s no big mystery. You either keep going, or you don’t.”

note: how could I not rec femslash? beautiful melancholy mood. I’m so sad for Luna

Starlight and Shadow by ohmyfae

While Noctis and his friends are setting up camp, Ardyn Izunia happens to accidentally stumble onto the runes of their haven. The magic of the haven pulls him into two halves; One is Ardyn, a small child with a bit of an ego and a limited knowledge of the world at large, and the other is the Scourge, shambling and groundless, determined to seek out its former host and consume the light it finds there.

note: fun read!

On the Care and Keeping of Prompto by ohmyfae

Congratulations! You have been chosen to ensure the well-being of PROMPTO, who is: 1. An absolute darling. 2. Of more intrinsic value than you, your significant other, your ancestors, and the world at large. 3. Two years and four months old 3a. This is very important to remember 4. Behind you.

note: also a very fun and fluffy read! also the fic that introduced me to the amazing crackship of Ardyn and Cor, and I say crackship but... I want more of it

Kingdom Hearts

The Price of Melodrama by LawnNinja

Xemnas never imagined that one of the hardest parts of his plan would be the stupid names.

note: deny it all you wish but you know this happened. also XULORD

(i don’t need you to) Worry for Me by Cygna_hime

In a fit of defiance and desperation, Vanitas disobeys his Master's orders and goes looking for the missing half of his heart. He finds it, and something else as well, something he never expected to find anywhere...

note: I absolutely love this I’ve read this like... 3 or 4 times? go read it now

Bleeding Heart by keelahselai

Xemnas was fundamentally a bad person. Born from the fracture of Xehanort's heart, he had only caused pain to those he banded together with under the promise of finding a way to return all their hearts. He shattered the Organization he'd founded for his own gain, and he understood this with cool indifference. But beneath everything, carefully kept folded away and hidden from Xigbar's prying eye, he was also made from the other inhabitant of Apprentice Xehanort's body. And as troubling as it could be to their plan, he kept it hidden from all.

(Or, how Terra managed to keep his head above the water for thirteen years)

note: I absolutely love the.. I don’t know what it’s called, but let’s say Terramas even though that sounds like a ship name... I absolutely love that trope. this one has such just a great mood y’know?

By Choice or Chance by Six_Piece_Chicken_McNobody

Lazy afternoons are a universal phenomenon.

note: I just love Xehaqus’s tragedy. this is nice, fluffy, and one of them is going to murder the other in his own selfish lust for power. (I know III said Xehanort had other motivations but I just love the “he’s such an utter bastard that all his relationships are going to end disastrously” interpretation)

Whatever Will Be by NanakiBH

Once I tell you the words I've been unable to say, it will be goodbye.

note: more explicitly melancholy mood than last one, still great.

[pilferingapples]

@aporeticelenchus replied to your post: "#the Les Amis RPG Character sheets just BOOM...

The knowledge domain cleric seems like a good fit for Combeferre, or even arcana domain. All the nerdery of wizards with debatably even MORE commitment to learning all the things!

Ooh, thank you! I like this and shall add it in to the list !:D